Chinavasion | Electronics Gadgets BlogWholesale Electronics and Gadgets

By Michael Wong

I’ve been using the internet now for the last 100 years (well it certainly feels that way) and in that time I’ve collected friends on almost every IM platform available. I’ve got Google Chat Friends, I’ve got Skype contacts, hell, I’ve even got people I talk to on Yahoo and MSN (although I’m hardly ever talking to them). Living in China now I also run the risk of getting some QQ friends as well.

So you can imagine that my menu bar is getting pretty crowded, I’d hate to think what would happen once it comes time to shift over to a mobile phone. And that time is coming, believe me.

This is where Gizmo5 comes in.

I can’t be the only one who is being overwhelmed by IM devices and VOIP technologies.

There are so many IM message networks out there it’s hard to keep up with them. It could be one of the reasons that people are interested in Skype Alternatives even though the behemoth may be the only thing that eBay has (besides Kijiji) that is actually getting any decent press.

Launched in July 2005 by SIPphone, Gizmo5 (or the platform formerly known as Gizmo Project) is one of the main competitors to Skype, well at least the one most often mentioned in the same breath as Skype. Gizmo5 adheres to the open standards for call management Session Initiation Protocol and XMPP, this means it’s most likely to play well with other VOIP providers. It’s the one most VOIP geeks are likely to use as it is a little bit more user friendly, can handle:

• AIM
• ICQ
• Ichat
• Windows Live (MSN)
• Yahoo
• Myspace
• QQ
• Gadu-Gadu
• Jabber
• Skype

And, what I love is that it lets you keep in contact with all of these networks free of charge. What’s even better is that it’s a little more open to where it’s based then Skype. While Skype needs the Windows mobile operating system or a Symbian system like the type commonly found on Nokia phones to operate Gizmo5 is a little bit more flexible when it comes to phones it can happily play with. And, thankfully, installing Gizmo5 (or gizmo project) on a cell phone is really easy to do.

Installing Gizmo5 On A Cell Phone

The reason able to go into this detail for you is because we recently launched two Wi-Fi capable phones, bring functionality of the internet right onto your phone.

Great Wi-Fi phones like the Voyager (CVDQ-M50) and the Odyssey (CVDQ-M56) make it cheap and easy to make free calls with devices like Gizmo5 and Skype.

Let me get started by saying that I’m not the biggest fan of mobile internet.

While the idea of the mobile web is inspiring, in practice surfing the net on a mobile phone is slow and frustrating.

Internet surfing should be done in front of the 24 inch monitor, with a quad core machine, and most importantly a full sized keyboard and infrared mouse!

When you browse the net on your phones you have to tap the letters of the URL you want to go to in the same manner that you send an SMS message.

And let’s not forget that most websites aren’t properly formatted for smaller cell phone screens. So yeah, I’m not a huge fan of the mobile web.

I do see it as a wonderful convenience if you want to check your email or send the occasional Twitter tweet or track social media news – but power surfing, forget about it.

But there is one area where a Wi-Fi phone will beat the pants off a stock standard cell phone every time.

With a Wi-Fi phone you are able to make free VOIP calls instead of making per minute calls through one’s own cell phone provider. Which brings me back to installing Gizmo5 on our new, fantastic, Odyssey Phone (CVDQ-M56).

Step 1) Click on the WLAN icon from your phone’s main menu.

Step 2) Click on SEARCH FOR NETWORKS to find an available wireless connection. The phone should search the area around you and give you a list of several possible connections.

Step 3) Select one and press CONNECT.

Step 4) (for secure networks only) If you are trying to access the Wi-Fi via a secure network you will need to type in the password to connect to it. If it is an unsecure network you won’t have to go through this step.

Step 5) Click on the Internet Icon (this might be opera, IE or Firefox) from the main menu, to launch the phone’s pre-installed web browser.

Step 6) Type in the following URL: http://gizmo5.com/

Step 7) Click on Gizmo5 for mobile instead of Gizmo5 for the PC.

Step 8 ) You will be asked for the make and model of your phone. If you are using a Wi-Fi Phone from Chinavasion you should probably use the most generic setting which is “all others” for phone brand and “all models” for phone model.

Step 9) Download the Java files to have Gizmo5 installed on your phone.

Step 10) Once you click download, the phone will initiate Java and promptly install the software.

Step 11) If you are a new user you will have to register an account. This should only take several minutes.

And that’s it. You should now successfully have Gizmo5 up and running on your phone.

Don’t pay for calls in Wi-Fi spots any more I would urge you to check out our Wi-Fi capable Odyssey Phone (CVDQ-M56) and visit Gizmo5 to see how adding just one more IM device can consolidate your other friends and save you some cash in the process.